Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. Purchases 14,190 Shares of SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM)

Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. increased its position in SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM - Free Report) by 8.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 186,715 shares of the energy company's stock after acquiring an additional 14,190 shares during the period. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. owned approximately 0.16% of SM Energy worth $5,592,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in SM Energy by 22.0% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,632,255 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $179,546,000 after buying an additional 835,929 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in SM Energy by 40.1% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,683,131 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $103,998,000 after buying an additional 767,779 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in SM Energy during the 4th quarter valued at about $22,059,000. Palisade Capital Management LP increased its stake in SM Energy by 45.5% during the 1st quarter. Palisade Capital Management LP now owns 1,226,895 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $36,746,000 after buying an additional 383,616 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in SM Energy by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,682,093 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $142,718,000 after buying an additional 296,601 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.56% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SM has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $33.00 to $29.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Stephens reduced their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $62.00 to $55.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $60.00 to $36.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of SM Energy from an "outperform" rating to an "underperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of SM Energy from $46.00 to $42.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $42.08.

SM Energy Stock Down 0.3%

NYSE SM traded down $0.09 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $27.74. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,668,602 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,974,112. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.18 billion, a PE ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 2.16. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $24.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.24. SM Energy Company has a 1-year low of $19.67 and a 1-year high of $48.49.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The energy company reported $1.76 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.16. SM Energy had a net margin of 27.61% and a return on equity of 19.90%. The company had revenue of $844.54 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $814.62 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.13 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 50.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that SM Energy Company will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 18th. SM Energy's dividend payout ratio is 11.20%.

SM Energy Profile

SM Energy Company, an independent energy company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of oil, gas, and natural gas liquids in the state of Texas. It has working interests in oil and gas producing wells in the Midland Basin and South Texas. The company was formerly known as St.